Audio Performance

I'll split the audio performance analysis into two parts - gaming and music. Even though the headset produces the same sound regardless of what it's being used for, you won't necessarily look for the same things while annihilating your virtual opponents as you will when listening to your favorite tunes.

Gaming

Inexpensive gaming headsets usually go for cheap thrills - a massive, bloated, midrange-crushing bass. Not so with the Rosewill Nebula GX30. This headset offers enough bass for your games not to sound dull, but not so much so that it would prevent you from being able to hear anything else.

The midrange isn't particularly refined, nor are the highs extremely crisp. You can't expect the Nebula GX30 to give you a truly competitive edge in terms of spatial positioning. You'll get a general sense of where your opponents are, but you won't always be able to pick them out with pinpointing accuracy. Let's take PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds as an example. At times, I had to rely on spotting the muzzle's flash before I could start accurately firing back on someone sitting in a bush not too far away - the Nebula GX30 wasn't informative enough to offer me the luxury of figuring out stuff like that by sound alone. On the other hand, in games that weren't that insanely dependent on early and accurate detection of targets, Star Wars: Battlefront 2, for example, the Nebula GX30 served me well. It did a good job of interpreting the chaos and atmosphere of sci-fi combat, as well as the game's truly epic soundtrack.

Although imperfect, the fact is that the Nebula GX30 sounds better than several more expensive headsets I have reviewed this year - the Asus Cerberus V2 and Cooler Master MasterPulse MH320 come to mind. If your budget is so tight that you're looking to spend no more than 40 bucks on a headset, then you're probably not expecting miracles. In that case, the Nebula GX30 will completely satisfy you - perhaps even positively surprise you sound quality-wise.

Let it also be said that the passive sound isolation is mediocre even though this is a closed-back headset. You'll be able to hear some of the sounds in your environment (traffic on a busy street, for example), and if you have someone sitting close to you, they'll be able to hear the higher frequencies since they leak out of your headset, especially at higher volumes. The effect isn't nearly as present as it would be on a pair of open-back headphones, but you should still be aware of it since it could bother you if you (or someone living with you) are easily annoyed by unwanted sounds.

Music

When it comes to music listening, I never expected the Rosewill Nebula GX30 to behave as well as it does. For the asking price of $37, it really goes above and beyond anything one could hope for. At lower volumes, it sounds lifeless and boring, but everything suddenly comes together nicely as soon as you crank up the volume. There are no significant distortions even at very high volumes, so you can pretty much go as loud as you like.

I noticed that the Nebula GX30 is very sensitive to the DAC and amplifier it's paired with. When I used it with a motherboard equipped with the Asus SupremeFX S1220 audio codec, the bass was dull and seriously lacked punch. After switching to a motherboard that uses the Realtek ALC1150 audio codec, the bass tightened up and became much more pleasing to the ear. Pretty much every genre of music immediately started sounding richer and more exciting. Of course, you'd expect for the headphone's sound to change between DACs/amps, but with the Nebula GX30, that was more pronounced than with most other gaming headsets I spend time with. The only problem is that this isn't a piece of information you can do something with. There's no chance a $37 gaming headset will inspire you to change your motherboard in an attempt to find one that would make it sound even better. Nor would I recommend investing in external DACs with headphone amps as that would completely defeat the purpose of going after an inexpensive gaming headset in the first place.

The Nebula GX30 shows us that you don't need to spend heaps to get a nice-sounding gaming headset. As long as its manufacturer can resist the urge to focus on nothing but the bass, the result can be a device that's going to pleasantly interpret your favorite tunes with enough punch, warmth, and clarity for you not to feel as though you need to buy a separate pair of headphones to listen to music on. Sure, it could do with more openness and neutrality, but let me remind you once again that we're talking about a $37 headset here.